liberate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
liberates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
liberated,
past participle, past
-
liberating
present participle
-
to set free, as from imprisonment or bondage.
- Synonyms:
- loose, disenthrall, unfetter, deliver
-
to free (a nation or area) from control by a foreign or oppressive government.
-
to free (a group or individual) from social or economic constraints or discrimination, especially arising from traditional role expectations or bias.
-
to disengage; set free from combination, as a gas.
-
Slang. to steal or take over illegally.
The soldiers liberated a consignment of cigarettes.
verb
-
to give liberty to; make free
-
to release (something, esp a gas) from chemical combination during a chemical reaction
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to release from occupation or subjugation by a foreign power
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to free from social prejudices or injustices
-
euphemistic to steal
Synonym Usage
See release.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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liberatornoun
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preliberateverb (used with object)
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reliberateverb (used with object)
-
liberativeadjective
-
liberatoryadjective
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unliberatedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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liberatesimple
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liberatessimple
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have liberatedperfect
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has liberatedperfect
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am liberatingprogressive
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are liberatingprogressive
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is liberatingprogressive
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have been liberatingperfect progressive
-
has been liberatingperfect progressive
Past
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liberatedsimple
-
had liberatedperfect
-
was liberatingprogressive
-
were liberatingprogressive
-
had been liberatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of liberate
First recorded in 1615–25; from Latin līberātus (past participle of līberāre “to free”), equivalent to līberā- verb stem + -tus past participle suffix. See liberal, -ate 1
Explanation
To liberate something means to release it from confinement. As the saying goes, "If you love something, set it free," — liberate it. Liberate is a powerful verb he verb that has been an important part of the history of the United States. In the Revolutionary War we fought to liberate ourselves from Great Britain, and the Civil War was fought in part to liberate the Southern slaves. As recently as the 1920's, women sought to be liberated from second-class citizen status. Even today, there are rebel groups in foreign countries striving to liberate their people who are denied freedom by their governments.
Vocabulary lists containing liberate
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
A cleaning tip to liberate your home from sticker tyranny: If you have a kiddo in your life, you know that stickers can magically appear on just about every surface within their arm’s reach.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026
Yes, he was so wedded to it, this idea that different, new mediums liberate the ones that come before.
From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026
"It just felt like my dad was known for helping liberate this town and these villages. I saw him as a war hero," he said.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
Tax and labor reforms and a deregulation blitz have gone a long way to liberate entrepreneurs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 10, 2026
Their line of reasoning boils down to this: England must fight, struggle and sacrifice its sons to liberate Holland and the other occupied countries.
From "The Diary of a Young Girl" by Anne Frank
"And then such an extreme event takes place, and in a way, liberates everything -- all the emotions, all the ideas and the passions, all the terrible things."
From Barron's ● Apr. 3, 2026
The shift liberates her holiday shopping, says Nussen, lead lighting designer at Consumer’s Lighting, a company she runs with her husband.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 31, 2025
“She sang because she wanted to feel alive, and she wanted to feel free, and she wanted to feel connected to her faith — and that already just liberates the performer.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 24, 2025
And even him taking that step sends such a positive message and liberates others to be able to do the same.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2024
All the more must we recognize that this sublime religious thought of God liberates morality from the various limitations of the ancient pagan conception of Deity and the more recent metaphysical view.
From Jewish Theology by Kaufmann Kohler
The album begs the question: What’s a “normal life” to a liberated woman?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026
The New Zealander liberated them, providing a freedom they knew how to use.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026
Here, Madonna is liberated from Universal’s script notes or editing maneuvers, free from tweaking anyone’s performance to feel more like the real thing.
From Salon ● Jul. 8, 2026
"MTI has been liberated and works freely... Topics and organisations previously banned have returned to our coverage. Propaganda has been pushed out," said an editor.
From Barron's ● May 30, 2026
The formidable advance of science and technology in Wagner’s time, instead of making people confident and liberated, made them fearful and vulnerable, ripe for exploitation.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Each in his way was in the process of liberating himself from the past.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Deciding how many days you want to teach yoga or bartend, and how much consulting work you want to take on, can feel liberating — as though you’re the master of your own time.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
Her last true classic, it was a hymn to the liberating power of the club.
From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026
Putting my first special out has been so liberating because as a comedian, we can toil and toil forever, moving punchlines around, moving premises around, and new current events can influence your content.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
The most liberating activity of all turned out to be downhill skiing, a sport with which I had little experience but that quickly became a passion.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
